A competition and award has been launched to help innovative Scottish food and drink businesses turn their ideas into successful brands.

From 21 June until 31 October, businesses will be able to submit entries for the award. The winning company will receive a comprehensive go-to-market prize package worth more than £65,000, including a consumer-validated brand identity, packaging and sell-in materials from Guy & Co.

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The award is open to Scottish entrepreneurs and food and drink businesses with a new product idea in development – this includes new ranges of existing brands but excludes extensions of current ranges, unless they are very innovative.

Businesses applying for the award should be able to demonstrate a winning product idea and have a clear business plan including route to market and production capability.

Guy & Co will evaluate the entries in November to assess the rigour of the innovation from a strategic and commercial standpoint.

Shortlisted entries will then be consumer tested to assess their reaction to the product and the likelihood of success. The winner of the award will be announced in December 2018.

The full package of services supplied to the winner by Guy & Co, which will be carried out in the first half of 2019, includes: brand planning; brand proposition and architecture development; consumer testing of brand identity concepts; packaging design and artwork and development of sell-in materials, including a brand website.

Assistance with PR strategy is also included from Guy & Co’s public relations partner, Beeline PR, with supporting financial advice from a chartered accountant partner covering areas such as business planning, investor-ready support and funding advice.

David Guy from Guy & Co said: “Scotland’s food and drink industry is world class and has an ambition to grow its value to £30bn by 2030. As an agency we are keen to give something back in a way we believe will add value to an entrepreneur or SME with a great new food or drink idea.

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“We know many SMEs often omit the same passion and energy that goes into their business planning in branding, where they are overly focussed on perfecting the product rather than defining its benefits and positioning. That omission can be costly, with an estimated 85 per cent of new product launches failing.”